Brave and Reckless’Advice for New WordPress Bloggers– Part 2

I wanted to address some additional blogging issues that I have encountered.

Reblogging Other Writers Work: Having your work reblogged-as long as you are properly cited- is considered one of the highest compliments in the blogging world. To reblog or not to reblog another writer’s work can be a hard decision to make when you are first starting out. When I was first starting out, I would occasionally reblog other people’s work. The good news is that it would often bring more traffic onto my blog but then I would get really depressed if my new followers greeted other people’s writing with more enthusiasm than they were giving mine.

One my favorite things about having almost 700 followers, many who read me regularly, is being able to pay it forward for other writers. The support of the Sudden Denouement Literary Collective and Felicia Denise was invaluable in getting me exposure to an audience who my writing speaks to. Their support is a debt I can never fully repay.

Guest Blogs: Lots of guides to WordPress recommend not writing guest blogs or posting guest blogs. I have written one guest blog and it was a perfectly fine experience. I don’t think the blog I wrote for is even still active but it wasn’t a bad or exploitative experience. If the blog otherwise fits your values and aesthetics and you are welcome to reblog to your own blog, I say trust your own judgement on this one. I have been talking to a couple of people about writing guest blogs for Brave and Reckless. I don’t need the content—I am a very prolific writing– but I have a couple of friends and acquaintances with amazing writing voices who are trying to decide if they want to blog and I am happy to let them get their toes wet here.

Collaborations: I was always the person who hated group assignments in school. Ironically, I have discovered that I love to collaborate on creative writing projects. In fact, another writer sending me a stanza to play with is like a Christmas present. Each collaboration is its own journey. Sometimes collaborations work best when they are a dialogue (Uncharted Nights, Careless Whisper) and sometimes words can be woven in a way that you no longer remember what you wrote and what your partner wrote (Our Undertow). Sometimes I write with one other person, sometimes many (The Weyward Sisters: Hand in Hand.)

Collaborations are creativity challenging and exciting and great way to really get to know another writer.

Reblogging Your Own Work: I write a lot. I try to write daily. It occurred to me recently that many of my older pieces were only read by a handful of people because I only had a few followers. It has been a good experience for me creatively (and sometimes deeply illuminating emotionally) to go back and revisit these older pieces. Sometimes when I revisit a piece I only remove a word or two. Sometimes I take something with good bones and transform it. It is all part of my journey as a writer and takes pressure off of me when the ideas are not flowing as easily.

109 comments

Thank you so much. This information is very valuable to me. Granted I’m not really trying to reach anybody. I started merely to get things down in a format that was easy. I have found, though, that I am enjoying the interaction with people whose blogs I read and vice versa. Your blog is icing on the cake. I had not considered that I would find such a delightful experience in reading what I find here.

I’m very new to WordPress blogging, and have learned many things each day. One day I found a blog post here on WordPress with an outstanding article about the artistic aspects of Rorschach test. I was blown away by the quality of the post. It took me a bit, but I realized it was not the blog owner’s article. Though it wasn’t, I still very much appreciated the blog owner for selecting such a good read.

I have only written four posts here so far, and am working on a fifth. My fifth is on a topic that I plan to write about in collaboration with my husband. The post idea is mine, but my husband is a bit more knowledgeable about some of the content I hope to include. I will certainly let it be known that he was a contributor.

Thank you for the advice in your posts on blogging! I’m new to WordPress and appreciate the good advice. I’ll look up the links you cited, as well. So far, I’ve met some very nice people and great writers!

Even writers aren’t always able to fully express their joy, frustration, or pain. I saw myself in your words and it didn’t just make me smile to know I wasn’t alone, it was empowering. I knew it could do the same for so many others…so I shared. 😉

A very informative and useful post here. Originally I had only used wordpress as somewhere to keep finished pieces, and I wasn’t expecting a reaction to them. However, the support of you, SD, and others have really made it something I see in a completely different way, and I’m very grateful for that.

This post has got me thinking and setting sights on things I hadn’t considered – I had never considered a collaborative piece before but it’s an idea I’m finding more alluring.

I’ll make sure to check out part 1 of this, and if anything else of this informative nature comes along I’ll be sure to keep my eye out.

I have really become a big fan of writing collaborative pieces. S Francis and I had a piece I really love go up on SD yesterday. He and I write together in an incredibly seamless way where we literally lose track of who wrote what. Olde Punk and I love to collaborate but have very distinct writing voices so we find word duets to work better for us. He and I have a collaborative piece going up on Monday or Tuesday. We would love to get all of the SD writers thinking outside of the box and collaborating.

Well I’ll make sure to check out that collaborative piece when I get home. There are certainly some very distinctive and characteristic writing voices on SD, so collaborations would definitely be intriguing to say the least, or a workshop type of scenario could yield something really interesting.

You’ve hit on some excellent issues! I like to reblog when I am very excited about something I have read, I like to wait until it has been seen by the writers followers. Used to be readers would go to the original but lately I find that they don’t and that makes me feel like I have done anything good. Your opinions on all these blogging situations is wonderful to read, thank you so much.

This is excellent advice. I am trying to come back to writing daily. I think I’ll start with April’s poem a day challenge, and continue on. Thanks for the great tips here for moving forward with my blog. ❤

I think the distance helps– a lot of times when I am writing, I am working through tough emotions. Sometimes the process just needs to be the process but with some distance, you can look at piece with new eyes and make it fly.

I once got to see a manuscript of Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea and CU-Boulder. He had revisions in it even after it was published. I guess every writer feels that they can make their writing better.

Thank you for posting these tidbits of advice. I am brand new to this (literally less than a week), having been spurred on by friends who enjoyed reading my longer posts on FB. Strangely, I always hated writing when I was in HS, but now that I am an adult, the words just seem to flow into my brain, and hopefully this venue will give me the outlet I need.

Question on your tip about blog length: How long is too long, before you should consider splitting up your post?
I am working on a post that I am publishing on Thursday for a specific reason. It’s finished except for any minor editing, and currently sits at 750 words. Too long? It’s not a heavy subject, really something more informative and should be an easy read.

For my writing prompt challenges, the top limit is 750 words. I think you’re okay. I took a Creative Writing Class this Spring– my first– and some of the best advice was to read my work and see how many small words I could eliminate. Too many ands, thes, etc can get distracting for the reader.

Echoing everyone else here, yes, thanks for the info, especially about reblogging my own older posts- I wasn’t sure of the etiquette, but I’d love to bring older good pieces back out into the light 🙂 Cheers from Australia, G

Now I echo you. May I just say, very off-topic, that I love the name bone&silver. I don’t know what it is, but when I saw it, it just struck me as perfect; the images, colors and mix of texture. (I’m not a psycho, I promise!)

Sometimes its important to acknowledge that we have limited time available and that we need to invst in the places that give us the most back. I think you may have just talked me out of continuing to post to Tumblr!

Hi Vinay. It is a super crazy time at work for me right now but I am willing to try to visit your blog. It would be great if you could fill out a contact form that includes a link or two of pieces you would like me to look out. It would also be really helpful to know if there are specific things you want feedback on.

I highly recommend following The Daily Post, which provides a new writing prompt every day. https://dailypost.wordpress.com/2017/03/06/community-pool-206/
There are also great writing prompts to be found on Tumblr and Pinterest. I honestly write about what’s on my mind every day. Music lyrics are also a constant inspiration. I have even been inspired to write after reading a beer menu

Hi there! Thank you for this post, it really is crisp and clean advice on how to improve both one’s writing skills and one’s reach. One of the things that makes your article stand out, for me, is that your passion for the craft of writing itself, instead of just reaching a high number of readers, really shines through. You also do what you preach: another convincing factor. I’m inspired to take my writing more seriously after reading your two-part advice piece – to write more regularly, to follow more blogs, to interact & collaborate more with other writers. You got me excited & inspired – a writer’s hardest task, if you ask me. Thanks and take care.

Wow! it makes me feel really good to know that my writing excited and inspired you! I think there was definitely a transition that happened where I went from thinking of myself as a middle age woman who wrote to thinking of myself as a writer. Other people called me that long before I did but something changes when you embrace that.

I totally understand what you mean. I started blogging out of two reasons: firstly, because there was a moment when I realized that I could connect to people with my writing and that felt – sorry to sound cheesy – healing. Like something clicked in me and found its rightful place. Secondly, the fact that I started getting paid as a freelance writer a few years later really gave me the final push. It wasn’t the money itself; it was the formal recognition I got for my writing – in form of money, the title on my tax form, the daily visits to the editorial office – that showed me what I hadn’t quite been able to grasp: I had indeed become “a writer”. I still feel like an impostor when I say it, though, but that is the topic for a whole other blogpost!:) Anyway, this realization made me embrace writing more, just as you put it – and now I am here, taking my first steps on WordPress!

Thanks again and sorry for the long reply, I couldn’t help myself. Just one more thing: my name as shown in the comment above seems to be linked to the wrong blog. Mine is this one here: https://gigisblogworld.wordpress.com. I really don’t know why I’m linked to this other account, but will try and investigate. In the meantime I wanted you to have the right reference to find me if you’d ever want to. My blog is the eclectic one with the food and the politics and the grief-stuff.

I struggle with feeling like an imposter. I am a writer and managing editor for Sudden Denouement (https://suddendenouement.com/ ) and even though I have been these since December I still everyone’s going to wake up and realize that I am not cool enough to hang out with them! Your blog looks very professional and compelling. I live outside of Philadelphia, USA.

How did you decide on your blog’s set up> did you design this yourself? Mine is pretty lame. I am reading up on how to add some pizzazz … or, (if you watch Big Bang Theory) Sheldon would call it :zazzle!

So I have “redecorated” twice since October. I use the free WordPress templates. Its been a lot of trial and error until I find something I like. I like a clean look that highlights the images which I spend a lot of time choosing. There is certainly a lot more going on here now than there was in October! I did ask for feedback from the Community Pool about organization.

your posts (this and part 1) are exactly the kind of help I’ve been after!….like others i’ve had my blog for many months, but I’m only just getting to grips with it all now. i’ve spent too much time (with my privacy settings set to ‘private’) getting content on there from a project I did last year, and now i realise that was a daft thing to do!!…do you think re-blogging my own old posts is the way to go or should i just leave things as they are and start from now, as i mean to go on? 😬 ~thank you!

If you pleased quality– by all means repost the older blogs one at a time. If you hit Add blog and select More Options there is an option to select a post to copy. It will let you edit text but will not let you change images.

Hey that was really cool to read. Your writing don’t let me stop until I reached the end. It showed me I didn’t everything wrong even I did most of my blogs in learning by doing. But your tips are worth a lot. I never thought about reblogging but the argument you may have gotten some new followers who do not know an older blog you wrote is an argument that counts. Thanks for the inspiration!

I enjoyed what you had to say about blogging. On a whim, a year ago I posted math shortcuts I knew. Believe me, this is not an interesting topic for most people. However, I have had repeated hits from 18 countries- it blows my mind that something I write is helping people around the world. I now have another blog on trees, another topic people generally have little interest in. Again, I have been surprised in the response. I struggle with finding the time to post articles, but the effort is enjoyable knowing I touch so many in a positive way. Thank you for the blogging tips, anything helps!